Actress Amanda Root talks to What's On about her dual roles playing author George Eliot and rector’s wife Mrs Cadwallader in the new two-part production of Eliot’s Middlemarch at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Can you tell us how George Eliot appears in her own story?

It is fascinating to see George Eliot the writer on stage with her characters, working out what they do next, asking them questions or trying to persuade them to act differently.

She is in dialogue and often they answer back, saying things like ‘why can’t this happen?’ and ‘what is going on?’ There is a real dynamic in that, it’s very vibrant. And it’s unique, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a play on stage where the author is there.

The novel is a bit like that, it helps people to discover the characters as you go along, nobody is all good or all bad, so you get to see different aspects of people. And that is happening on stage so I hope the audience will really become engaged with that.

What attracted you to the role?

George Eliot is written so exquisitely and has such poignancy within the play because it’s her invention, her ability to change our thoughts to make us think differently. To be able to try and embody that psychological insight and be the person who is present within her story is incredible - I couldn’t not do it.

I was terrified though because there are an awful lot of lines to learn and I wanted to learn more about George Eliot and to read the novel, which I hadn’t read before. So it has been a lot of work but I am so glad I’m doing it as it’s a fantastic piece and a wonderful story.

Did you enjoy reading the novel?

I loved it, I found it so funny, so touching and so brilliant in the way George Eliot reveals characters and helps us to see them from different perspectives. No-one is in isolation and all these good intentions or aspirations for the future don’t always work out. Sometimes we have to re-assess things and I love the way she draws us into that. She helps us to gradually understand and discover the characters.

You also play snooty Mrs Cadwallader, can you tell us about her?

I love Mrs Cadwallader because of the humour she brings to the story. There are various moments where you just laugh out loud. I think George Eliot is very clever at giving us something very profound but also allowing us to find what is hysterical about those characters in provincial Middle England. She gives us this insight into the pettiness of some of those characters.

How do you feel the story has relevance for audiences today?

Things have changed dramatically but I still think for women there remain struggles within society and also within marriage. It’s not so difficult today to divorce, for example, and marriage doesn’t have quite the same restrictions as it did in those days. But I still think there are people who get into these psychological aspects of marriage that George Eliot is investigating – dominance, manipulation, the good intentions that don’t work, or not really understanding or knowing your husband fully enough.

There is a difference in the culture and the society today but the inner world is often very similar. And I notice from the audience that, when certain aspects of marriage are spoken of, there is a general murmur of assent or humour about it - they get it.

You worked with the RSC a good deal in your early career so what has brought you back to the company now?

I haven’t been with them for probably nearly 30 years but I remember when I was younger you would be offered these extraordinary parts and you’d think ‘I can’t not do that’ and that is what has happened this time. They are such a high-class theatre company and they do such extraordinary work and have such great directors and actors. To be involved is a privilege, I feel honoured to be invited back.

Middlemarch is staged in the smaller Swan Theatre, how does it suit that space?

I love working in The Swan. It’s a unique space and the audience are around you and close to you so you feel you can really speak to them. I think this play fits well in that size. It’s intimate and personal, it is a story that touches us all so you want it to be personal and close-up.

The story is staged in two parts, how does that affect the experience?

I saw Wolf Hall which the RSC staged in two parts and I found it incredibly engaging and hopefully that’s what we have with Middlemarch. Putting the two together is like having a pair of balancing scales – they balance and inform one another. Things that are happening in the first play will start to sift into what is happening in the second play and they will start to inform character more and more.

I think the nature of the way it is driven with the scene structure, you are brought into a particular storyline and then you come out of it, then you might have a bit of George Eliot talking and then another character, so you are taken through this beautiful mosaic of the stories. I think that has its own particular energy for audiences.

I’m really hoping that people will come and see both plays on the same day and be that audience that is sticking with you and has that incredible journey.

So why would you recommend I come and see Middlemarch?

It is true to the spirit of the novel but it offers something original that can illuminate both the novelist in a new way and also her characters.

You’ve got incredible stories and you’re also asked to engage in those stories in quite unique ways.  It’s a couple of plays where you can really feel you could get involved in these people’s stories. You’re not just observing a lovely play, you are being asked to think deeply, to question things and to think about characters differently and to therefore think about yourself. It makes us ask ‘where does this relate to me?’ I love plays like that.

Middlemarch Parts 1 & 2 show at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon until Saturday 16 January.